Former minister Narayana gets anticipatory bail

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to former minister Ponguru Narayana in a case relating alleged irregularities in sale of assigned lands in the Amaravati region. In an interim order on a petition by Narayana, the court barred the CID from arresting him for three months. The TDP leader had filed the petition seeking anticipatory bail on health grounds, telling the court that he may have to travel abroad for medical treatment. This came a day after the Special Investigation Team of CID probing the case arrested five close aides of Narayana.

The CID arrested Kolli Sivaram, an employee of Ramakrishna Housing Ltd, Gattem Venkatesh, Chikkala Vijaya Saradhi, K K Dora Babu and Bade Anjaneyulu under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the CID, the accused committed various irregularities in the purchase of 1,100 acre in villages in Amaravati region.

The case was registered in 2020 on a complaint by Y Prasad Kumar. As then municipal administration and urban development minister, Narayana had allegedly orchestrated the illegal purchase of assigned land in the capital city area, using his own relatives and acquaintances as benami transactions, it said. Assigned lands are the lands allotted by the government to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and as per the rules, they can't be purchased or sold.

The investigating team claimed that the then minister ignored the findings of then Guntur collector Kantilal Dande and then CRDA commissioner Cherukuri Sreedhar The CID claimed to have so far unearthed a financial trail of Rs 15 crore from the accused to the family members of Narayana through the bank accounts of Ramakrishna Housing Ltd.